How to Play Viego in League of Legends

Want to know how to play Viego in League of Legends?

Viego is the first champion to hit the Summoner’s Rift in 2021. He’s an interesting character that can steal enemy abilities and can be irritating in the lane. He can deal a lot of damage, has great mobility, and offers kill pressure throughout the game.

The Ruined King is often played as a jungler and can possess slain enemy champions in the battle.

Having a very complex ability set, playing Viego can be intimidating.

To help you out, we’ve decided to break down his mechanics and give you tips on how to play Viego in League of Legends.

Let’s begin!

Abilities

The key to Viego’s ability lies with his passive Sovereign’s Domination. While he’s an assassin, he greatly relies on possessing fallen enemy champions to boost his damage. Virgo needs to be involved in fights as much as possible, as well as picking up resets.

Unfortunately, Viego relies on multiple items before he can burst down full health enemies.

He is most dangerous when he can continue to reset his ultimate, Heartbreaker, and spam his abilities during a clash or team fight.

Sovereign’s Domination (Passive)

Virgo can possess slain champions he assisted in killing. When he successfully controls a champion, he heals a portion of the enemy champion’s maximum health and can use their items, basic attacks, and non-ultimate abilities.

Viego’s ultimate, Heartbreaker, also resets and gains bonus movement speed when approaching enemy champions.

Blade of the Ruined King (Q)

This ability has a passive effect that gives Viego bonus damage on-hit, based on the target’s current HP. If Viego attacks an enemy recently hit by his ability, it causes the attack to strike twice.

However, the second strike takes health from the target instead of dealing damage, but still applies on-hit effects and has the chance to critical.

This passive also remains active while Viego possesses another champion.

On the active side of the ability, Viego swings his blade forward, dealing physical damage to enemies hit.

Spectral Maw (W)

Viego charges his ability before dashing forward, shooting out a mist that stuns and damages the first enemy to be hit. The stun duration and mist range increase depending on the charge time, but the damage and dash range stay the same.

You also can’t dash shorter, and this ability resets Viego’s basic attack timer. Viego can also cast any ability while dashing.

Harrowed Path (E)

Viego releases a wave of mist forward, creating a trail that lasts for eight seconds. This mist spreads around the initial terrain it encounters. While in the mist, Virgo conceals himself and gains attack and movement speed.

Using a basic attack and ability breaks the camouflage and stops the bonus movement speed for a minimum of one second.

Heartbreaker (R)

Viego discards the champion he’s currently possessing and leaps forward, attacking the enemy champion with the lowest health within his range. This also deals bonus damage based on the opponent’s missing health, and other enemy champions are knocked away.

Heartbreaker also slows the main target and applies on-hit effects.

Jungling Gameplay

Riot announced Viego as a jungler, explaining why his play kit fits well in the jungle. His Blade of the Ruined King’s passive and active effects are excellent for clearing camps, and its active ability deals 10 bonus physical damage on monsters.

If you want to clear jungle camps fast, you should prioritize maxing out Viego’s Blade of the Ruined King.

On the other hand, Harrowed Path and Spectral Maw should be used in small amounts when clearing. While they can speed up your jungling, they have longer cooldowns than Blade of the Ruined King.

Spectral Maw and Harrowed Path are also crucial for ganks, so it’s best to reserve them for that purpose.

You can take advantage of Spectral Maw to move faster in between camps, but you should take note that it cannot be used to dash over walls. Harrowed Path should not be used to move past walls during routine clearing unless you’re trying to run away from a gank.

When playing Viego, you’ll want to rush level six before going on ganks since his abilities are not heavy on crowd control.

You should also lead the charge when ganking by using Spectral Maw unless your ally can provide other CC.

Laning Tips

Although Viego is intended to be a jungler, he’s also played as a solo top laner when needed. However, unlike many other AD assassins, he doesn’t have great fightback abilities in the early stages.

Fortunately, his 255 attack range is slightly better than average for melee. Nonetheless, he’s still at a great disadvantage when it comes to ranged champions.

Maximizing Blade of the Ruined King is still the priority when playing the top lane, as this gives him access to ranged AoE farming.

With the help of Harrowed Path, Viego should play well around the map. Hugging the side of the mid lane and the top terrain allows Viego to create trails of mist to hide for better trading patterns.

Runes

Here’s the rune set we suggest when playing Viego as a jungler:

Precision

Resolve

Bonus

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+15-140 HP (Lvl 1-18)

Item Build

Going with these items should bring out Viego’s full potential as a jungler:

While no build fits every situation, keeping these tips in mind should give you an idea of how to adjust your item selection.

That wraps our guide on how to play Viego in League of Legends. If you have questions or other concerns, please let us know in the comment section, and we’ll do our best to answer them as soon as possible.

GAMES

How to Play Viego in League of Legends